The Destroyer Archetype

While reading about the Destroyer archetype I noticed how this archetype fits me. Specifically, I noticed how this archetype has affected my life and made me grow. “In the psychological realm, it helps us let go of ways of thinking and behaving that no longer fit us (pg.145).” The Destroyer helps us to grow from child to adolescent, to young adult, and then to adults. The Destroyer archetype helps everyone grow out of childish behavior and learn to be adults and face the world, however, it may be slower in some people, and sometimes a person never really lets go of their way of behaving, but everyone does to some extent. The Destroyer is what helps us let go of the past, and allows us to learn from our experiences so that we may live a better life.

“But the Destroyer often strikes in ways that seem simply irrational and meaningless (Pg.139).” When we have to face loss of different sorts, such as death, we often see it as something completely meaningless, something not meant to be. However, often times there is a reason, which may be to help us learn from our mistakes and learn to deal with death. When I was in high school a friend of mine was shot in the head, and he died. This event shocked the entire school, and community. No one wanted to believe it, and a lot of people, including myself, saw it as something completely meaningless and irrational. This person was someone who was fighting against gun violence; he was someone who was trying to stop violence starting with schools. I remember being shocked and angry at what happened because it made no sense to me. However, after time passed myself and others began to see that there truly was meaning behind the event. On the day of the event, this person was obtaining signatures from other students to promote the stopping of gun violence, and it was something that he wanted to spread to other schools, however, it was not something that caught on too quickly. However, after his death, what he wanted was achieved. The school came together to support one another, and students began signing the petition, and within the week the petition had been spread to many other schools. “This experience can either cripple or be transformative (pg.141).” This experience I faced in high school was something that made me suffer, as well as others, however, it was also an experience that helped many people realize the violence in the world. This event made us suffer, but it also helped us grow.

In my discipline of biology we study different organisms in our body and small microscopic organisms in the world. When a virus enters our body, our body may not be able to fight it off, which is why we get sick. However, it is this encounter that enables our body to develop defense mechanisms that help our body when it encounters the virus again. Our bodies don’t give up, but instead, our bodies learn from the experience and use the experience to be prepared for the next time. This is what the Destroyer archetype does, it hurts us, but it also helps us. We may not realize anything but the loss, or hurt, but in time we realize that we were able to learn from the encounter, and that is what the cells in our body accomplish.

In my discipline of sociology we study society and how it changes and remains the same over time. Throughout time our society has had times in which we were destroyed, and hurt, however, society pushes through and keeps moving ahead. Our society has been crippled at times, such as during war, but our society doesn’t just fall down, but instead has used the event as a reminder that we are vulnerable, but are also strong. In society everyone is different, and everyone has a different way of thinking and viewing the world. It is these differences that allow us to live in a diverse society, however, these differences are not always accepted, and this differences are often what defines a person in another eyes. In society we need to accept that we are not always right, and we need to open our eyes, and realize that there are different views of every situation. In our society we need to learn to accept differences so that we may learn from them and become a stronger society.

The video, “On Being Wrong,” with Kathryn Schulz, was very interesting to me. It made me realize that I myself have been trapped in the bubble of always thinking that I am right. I have found myself at times wondering why people don’t do things my way, because I believe it is the right way, when in fact their way is just different. I have learned through this video, as well as BIS 301 and 302, that there are just different ways of looking at a situation. From this video I have realized that I do wrong, and in doing so I hurt myself as well as others. In society we tend to judge each other based on their looks, and how they act, and this causes people to think they are better then others. However, people are just different, in many ways. People are wrong at times, however, we don’t realize it until after we have already done what is wrong, but we do need to accept when something is wrong, and learn from the mistake in order to fix ourselves for the future.

“The Destroyer turns us into villains when we refuse to acknowledge and take responsibility for the harm we do-and we all do harm of some kind (pg.145).” In life we all make mistakes, however, we need to accept the mistakes we have made and learn that we are not always right. The Destroyer is what allows us to learn from our mistakes, without it we would not learn from our mistakes, and we would just keep making the same mistake, and we would continue to think that what we are doing is right. There is a movie called “The Day The Earth Stood Still” and in this movie the world is being destroyed because humans have continued to destroy it on their own, however, they convince the “people” destroying it to stop because they tell them they will learn. They tell them that it is only in the face of destruction that we learn. This is true, in my opinion. In our world we know things that we do are wrong, such as polluting, yet we continue to do it, but how long can that go on for? We are not denying the harm; we have acknowledged the harm, with videos such as “An Inconvenient Truth”, and other documentaries. However, even though we know the harm, we have not done enough to stop the harm because we don’t necessarily “see” it, and so we continue. Does this make us villains? We are not taking responsibility, we are not changing, instead we will just continue until we have gone too far, and then in the face of destruction we will realize the wrong we have done.

The Destroyer archetype provides us with the ability to hurt, but with this ability we can learn. However, it is always a person’s choice to learn from their experiences, or to ignore the experience and never learn. “It is only when we are willing to face our ignorance that we stand a chance of gaining wisdom. It is only when we feel our loneliness that we are likely to experience love (pg.144).” It is only when we realize our mistakes and face these mistakes that we are able to move forward on a better path. I hope that one day more people will be able to face their mistakes and be able to learn from them, this way people can be accepted for who they are and we can all live in a world of acceptance and respect for one another.